Bears at Chargers

Today: 6 p.m. at Qualcomm Stadium

TV: Channel 8 (delayed, 9:30 p.m.)

Radio: 105.3-FM, 1360-AM; 107.3-FM (Spanish)

Shawne Merriman walked onto the field to facetious applause as the rest of the Chargers began stretching. He spent the next hour catching up with teammates new and old during a walk-through in preparation for a preseason game in which he won’t play.

Then he presented a message of moving forward.

“Everything I wanted to say, everything I wanted to express has been said,” Merriman said. “And I’m happy to put that in the past and get ready to play football.”

Coming off two seasons of relative inactivity, Merriman ultimately decided he had to be on the field, and so he signed his tender Friday morning and reported to training camp two weeks late.

“I think it was time for me to come in and get ready,” he said. “You still got a point where you’ve got to come in and get ready for the season … The only way to emulate football is to play football.”

Merriman led the NFL with 39½ sacks from 2005-07 but is now in a place where he must perform at a high level to assure he gets a good contract after this season. It has long been known the Chargers have no intention of signing him to a long-term deal. But Merriman can earn that contract elsewhere if he can remain healthy and return to being explosive and dominant. He missed the final 15 games of 2008 after reconstructive knee surgery and played slightly more than a third of the Chargers’ defensive snaps in 2009 while battling a serious foot injury and other ailments.

“I have a lot to prove,” Merriman said as he headed to the weight room after his news conference. “I’m willing to work. I’m not going to talk about what I’m going to do … I know what the expectations are.”

In addition to his desire to enhance his long-term future, Merriman also faced the loss of more than $192,000 for every game he missed. The Chargers, according to sources, had sent him a letter informing him of their intention to place him on the Roster Exempt List if he did not sign by Aug. 20. Had he not signed by that deadline, he would have been held out at least the season opener.

Merriman, who will practice for the first time on Monday and is expected to play Aug. 20 against the Dallas Cowboys, had skipped almost the entire offseason and almost two-thirds of training camp. He was unhappy with his tenuous position on the team and had expressed to the Chargers over the course of the past few months that if there was no long-term contract coming from the team, he would like the team to work with his agent in facilitating a trade. While still open to a trade, he said recently that he wanted assurances from the Chargers that he would not be on the block up until the Oct. 19 trade deadline. He also voiced a desire to be a central figure in the defense.

Asked if the team made any concessions for Merriman and his agent regarding those issues, General Manager A.J. Smith said: “None. They understand our position and it remains the same. They thought about it and decided to come in.”

Smith and Merriman also confirmed that they talked. Merriman characterized that phone conversation Thursday night as positive. Asked if he would share what was said, Smith replied, “No. The conversation was private.”

Smith showed an equal measure of confinement when asked his reaction to Merriman deciding to sign his $3.269 million, one-year tender.

“It’s time for him to go to work, contribute to our team and help us win games,” Smith said.

While Smith is not a fan of what he deems to be Merriman’s plentiful pursuits outside football, he believes the Chargers can be a better team in 2010 if Merriman remains healthy. While many have decried a decline in Merriman since his 17-sack season in 2006, his best all-around year arguably was 2007, when he had 12½ sacks and 96 tackles and was a sideline-to-sideline ball pursuer.

Head coach Norv Turner said the Chargers will see beginning Monday what type of football shape Merriman is in.

“I didn’t lose anything (by not being in camp),” Merriman said. “But … these guys have been out here working every single day and I have to work myself like they worked themselves the first couple weeks while I wasn’t here. And I’m prepared to do that.”